Steinbeck (17 page)
Authors: John Steinbeck
Did you know that Herman Shumlin is to produce In Dubious Battle as a play in the fall? That's what I hear anyway. Mary Ann will be glad.
What will you be doingâworking in Hollywood? It's time I got back to work. Thanks for the review. It shall be my inspiration.
John Steinbeck
The Nation
review of
Tortilla Flat
had said, among other things:
review of
Tortilla Flat
had said, among other things:
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“The subject matter of
Tortilla Flat
is surely grim enough, but Mr. Steinbeck's approach to it is wholly in the light-hearted, fantastic tradition; it suggests such novels as
Vile Bodies
and
South Wind ...
Tortilla Flat
is surely grim enough, but Mr. Steinbeck's approach to it is wholly in the light-hearted, fantastic tradition; it suggests such novels as
Vile Bodies
and
South Wind ...
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“Mr. Steinbeck's attempt to impose a mood of urbane and charming gaiety upon a subject which is perpetually at variance with it is graceful enough, but the odds are against him ...
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“The situations are rife with possibilities which, despite the amount of indifference to them manifested by Mr. Steinbeck and his characters, it is not always easy to ignore.”
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Joseph Henry Jackson, “playing horse” with this review in the San Francisco Chronicle, referred to “a patronizing sneer from a reviewer afflicted with the class itch.” It was Steinbeck's error to believe that this was Mary McCarthy, who had indeed written the review preceeding that of
Tortilla Flat,
and whose name appeared at the end of her review but ahead of the
Tortilla Flat
review, which, in fact, was written by one Helen Neville. Nevertheless, it was to mark the beginning of a feud that was to last the rest of Steinbeck's life.
Tortilla Flat,
and whose name appeared at the end of her review but ahead of the
Tortilla Flat
review, which, in fact, was written by one Helen Neville. Nevertheless, it was to mark the beginning of a feud that was to last the rest of Steinbeck's life.
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Mary McCarthy, still in her early twenties and a recent graduate of Vassar, did review
In Dubious Battle
in
The Nation
under the title “Minority Report.” She called the work: “academic, wooden, inert ... The dramatic events take place for the most part off-stage and are reported, as in the Greek drama, by a breathless observer. Mr. Steinbeck for all his long and frequently pompous exchanges offers only a few rather childish, often reiterated generalizations ... He may be a natural story-teller; but he is certainly no philosopher, sociologist, or strike technician.”
In Dubious Battle
in
The Nation
under the title “Minority Report.” She called the work: “academic, wooden, inert ... The dramatic events take place for the most part off-stage and are reported, as in the Greek drama, by a breathless observer. Mr. Steinbeck for all his long and frequently pompous exchanges offers only a few rather childish, often reiterated generalizations ... He may be a natural story-teller; but he is certainly no philosopher, sociologist, or strike technician.”
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Whether this was the result of “lying in ambush to give me my come-uppance” is conjectural. But Steinbeck believed it was.
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As for Herman Shumlin's projected production of
In Dubious Battle,
he contracted with John OâHara to do the dramatization. In a letter to Elizabeth Otis, Steinbeck reported:
In Dubious Battle,
he contracted with John OâHara to do the dramatization. In a letter to Elizabeth Otis, Steinbeck reported:
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“Now for the dramatic thing. John O'Hara stopped on his way to San Francisco. I do not know his work but I liked him and his attitude. I think we could get along well. I do not believe in collaboration. If he will maintain the intention and theme of the book (and I am convinced that he will) I shall not interfere at all. He said he would come up in a month with some script to go over. I am pleased with him as the man to do the job.”
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Years later, O'Hara reminded Steinbeck of this meeting in characteristic style:
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“It is a warm and good friendship that began that warm afternoon in Pacific Grove, A.D. 1936, with some Mexican dish cooking on the stove, an English saddle hanging on a peg, your high school diploma on the wall, and you trying to explain about phalanx man.”
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But Steinbeck's optimism about the
In Dubious Battle
dramatization proved unjustified. As he wrote Elizabeth Otis later:
In Dubious Battle
dramatization proved unjustified. As he wrote Elizabeth Otis later:
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“O'Hara has not answered my letter. Anyway, I started blocking I. D. B. several days ago, and today and yesterday finished the first scene. And it is lousy. It sounds just what it isâa re-hashed novel. No life âjust dead. Maybe someone else can do it. This story was conceived in its present form. It is so real to me that when I compress, leave out incidents and characters and scenes, I'm just lying about something that really happened.”
POSTCARD
Pacific Grove
[1936]
[1936]
Dear Louis Paul:
I'm answering your letter in haste. After two months of fooling around my new work [
Of Mice and Men
] is really going and that makes me very happyâkind of an excitement like that you get near a dynamo from breathing pure oxygen and I'm not going Saroyan. Anyway this work is going quickly and should get done quickly. I'm using a new set of techniques as far as I know but I am so illy read that it may have been done. Not that that matters at all, except that the unexplored in method makes the job at once more difficult because I can't tell what it will get over and more pleasant because it requires more care. I'm not interested in method as such but I am interested in having a vehicle exactly adequate to the theme. Enough of this, when the work is rolling it's almost impossible not to be a bore.
Of Mice and Men
] is really going and that makes me very happyâkind of an excitement like that you get near a dynamo from breathing pure oxygen and I'm not going Saroyan. Anyway this work is going quickly and should get done quickly. I'm using a new set of techniques as far as I know but I am so illy read that it may have been done. Not that that matters at all, except that the unexplored in method makes the job at once more difficult because I can't tell what it will get over and more pleasant because it requires more care. I'm not interested in method as such but I am interested in having a vehicle exactly adequate to the theme. Enough of this, when the work is rolling it's almost impossible not to be a bore.
It is raining hard. The roof of my little house is roaring.
I hope you do manage to come west. I'll get back to work.
John Steinbeck
To Elizabeth OtisPacific Grove
May 27, 1936
May 27, 1936
Dear Miss Otis:
The check for $94 arrived. Thank you very much. I am enclosing the statement for your records. English criticism always amazes me, mostly because they consider us so foreign. I never think of the English as so strange. There is a Mexican wordâAmericanado. It means literally Americaned but by connotation queer, unusual, unpalatable, incomprehensible, crazy. That is the way the English think of us too.
Minor tragedy stalked. I don't know whether I told you. My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my ms. book [
Of Mice and Men
]. Two months work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn't want to ruin a good dog for a ms. I'm not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking with his punishment flyswatter. But there's the work to do over from the start.
Of Mice and Men
]. Two months work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn't want to ruin a good dog for a ms. I'm not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking with his punishment flyswatter. But there's the work to do over from the start.
We're putting up a little shack near Los Gatos to escape the nasty fogs that hang around here all summer. My wife is building it while I stay here and work. It will be ready in about a month and then I will go up there. I'll send you the change of address when I know what it is.
I should imagine the new little manuscript will be ready in about two months. I hope you won't be angry at it. I think it has some thing, but can't tell much yet.
I'll get this off. I hear the postman.
John Steinbeck
1936
to
1939
to
1939
Stenluch
“Such excitement will never
come again.”
“Such excitement will never
come again.”
Â
1936
Moved to Los Gatos, California.
Moved to Los Gatos, California.
Â
Of Mice and Men
(novel) published; chosen by 1937 Book-of-the-Month Club.
The Red Pony
, in three parts, published.
Of Mice and Men
(play, which won Drama Critics' Circle award) produced.
(novel) published; chosen by 1937 Book-of-the-Month Club.
The Red Pony
, in three parts, published.
Of Mice and Men
(play, which won Drama Critics' Circle award) produced.
Â
1938
The Long Valley
and the fourth part of
The Red Pony
published.
The Long Valley
and the fourth part of
The Red Pony
published.
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1939
The Grapes of Wrath
published. Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters.
The Grapes of Wrath
published. Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Steinbeck's involvement with the lives of the migrant workers, which had already provided the subject matter of
In Dubious Battle,
became even keener in his mid-thirties. During the summer of 1936, he was visiting the Gridley Migrant Camp, north of Sacramento, when he replied to a letter from Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian emeritus of U.C.L.A:
In Dubious Battle,
became even keener in his mid-thirties. During the summer of 1936, he was visiting the Gridley Migrant Camp, north of Sacramento, when he replied to a letter from Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian emeritus of U.C.L.A:
Â
“I have to write this sitting in a ditch. I'll be home in two or three weeks. I'm not workingâmay go south to pick a little cotton. All this, needless to say, is not for publicationâmigrants are going south now and I'll probably go along. I enjoy it a lot. ”
POSTCARD
[Pacific Grove]
[1936]
[1936]
Dear Louis Paul:
Awfully glad to get your letter. I'm very busy now. Doing a Nation article and a series for the S. F. News on migrant labor. I've been in the field for the last week. Finished my new little book [
Of Mice and Men
] and sent it off a week and a half ago and of course have heard nothing from it. I don't know whether it is any good or not.
Of Mice and Men
] and sent it off a week and a half ago and of course have heard nothing from it. I don't know whether it is any good or not.
Down the country I discovered a book like nothing in the world. So I'll be busy as a lamp bug for some months. I like to be busy. I've been gestating for too long.
I have to write 3,000 words a day for the next five days [“The Harvest Gypsies” for the San Francisco
News
]. So here goes. I'll write you a letter as soon as the series is off.
News
]. So here goes. I'll write you a letter as soon as the series is off.
John
Â
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The book he had “discovered” dealt with vigilantes.
POSTCARD
Pacific Grove
[1936]
[1936]
Dear Louis Paul:
I'm delighted that you're coming out. You'll see the new house then. It is just being built now. It's a very beautiful place.
Let me know about when you will arrive so you won't go looking over the whole state for me.
You say you are afraid of symbols. But you see in this country the deep symbol of security is rainâwater. And the symbol of evil is drought. There isn't any twisting of symbols there. It's a very real thing. My father lost nearly all his cattle in the year I was writing about. It's a pretty awful thing to have your herd die of thirst and starvation. I was simply trying to reduce that pattern to utterance.
I'm tied up in the new thing. It's a most difficult thing.
I'll be awfully glad to see you.
John Steinbeck
By midsummer the Steinbecks had moved to their new house in Los Gatos.
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They had seen Ted Miller in New York in the fall of 1935 when they had stopped there on their way home from Mexico to sign contracts with Paramount Pictures for the film of
Tortilla Flat.
Later, Miller sent an accumulation of letters from the time when he had acted as Steinbeck's ex-officio agent.
Tortilla Flat.
Later, Miller sent an accumulation of letters from the time when he had acted as Steinbeck's ex-officio agent.
Los Gatos, California
[1936]
[1936]
Dear Ted:
Thanks for the rejections. They still give me the shivers and always will. Each one was a little doom. Had a personal fight with each one. And it's such a short time ago and it may be again.
I'm awfully sorry in a way that I didn't see you more when I was East. And in other ways I am glad. Lord how miserable and rushed and embarrassed I was. I don't like it there. I liked it better before and God knows I hated it then. I'd much rather see you out here where I have leisure and quiet. We live two miles out of town on a hill and few people come here. They have to want to see us if they come because of the distance. There are no casuals.
This isn't a farm we're on. Only two acres. We thought we'd get a farm but that takes attention and I have work to do and I don't like to hire anyone if I can help it. I always feel too humble with hired people and it ends with me doing all the work.
My God, what a nightmare this publicity is. I don't mind being a horse's ass at all. Enjoy it in fact, but I do like to be my own kindânot that it's a better kind but it's more comfortable and I know it better.
Don't you ever come West? It will be a long time before I'm East again.
bye and thanks again.
John
To George Albee[Los Gatos]
[1936]
[1936]
Dear George:
I seem to have a terrible time writing letters these days. I don't know whether you know what a bomb California is right now or not. I can only assure you that it is highly explosive. I want to see it all and hear it all.
I finished a little book sometime ago [
Of Mice and Men
]. As usual it is disliked by some and liked by some. It is always that way. Covici likes it anyway. It is a tricky little thing designed to teach me to write for the theatre. Now I'm working hard on another book which isn't mine at all. I'm only editing it but it is a fine thing. A complete social study made of the weekly reports from a migrant camp.
Of Mice and Men
]. As usual it is disliked by some and liked by some. It is always that way. Covici likes it anyway. It is a tricky little thing designed to teach me to write for the theatre. Now I'm working hard on another book which isn't mine at all. I'm only editing it but it is a fine thing. A complete social study made of the weekly reports from a migrant camp.
Then I did an article for the Nation and a series of articles for the News on migrant labor but the labor situation is so tense just now that the News is scared and won't print the series. Any reference to labor except as dirty dogs is not printed by the big press out here. There are riots in Salinas and killings in the streets of that dear little town where I was born. I shouldn't wonder if the thing had begun. I don't mean any general revolt but an active beginning aimed toward it, the smouldering.
I don't know what you mean by taking to the woods. The woods aren't going to save anyone. And if you want to run you had better start now because you aren't going to have until the end of 1937. You have six months or at most a year. I am not speaking of revolution again, but war. Every news report verifies the speed with which it is coming.
But enough of that sort of thing for the present. This isn't a new typewriter but we turned in all our old ones and got one that is rebuilt and it is a joy. All the type rightside up and the ribbon reverse works and everything. I have a little tiny room to work in. Just big enough for a bed and a desk and a gun rack and a little book case. I like to sleep in the room I work in. Just at present there is hammering going on. We are building on a guest room. We had none and really need one. It will have big glass doors and screens so that it will really be an outside porch when we want to open the doors. Dr. McDoughal of Carnegie was up the other day and told us we have six varieties of oaks on the place besides manzanita, madrone and toyon. We're in a forest you know.
I have to go to work.
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